Of the 30 current franchises in MLB’s galaxy, just five can claim a player who produced at least 250 home runs and 250 stolen bases for it: the Astros, Brewers, Cubs, Yankees and Giants (who, unlike the others, have two such well dug-in performers). Before reading further, any appetite to try and identify the players who match?
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(I’ll do the reveal a little lower down, so the eyes don’t cheat)
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The genesis for this particular bit of trivia came from a desire to write something about Cleveland’s José Ramírez: a look in both temporal directions to have a bit of a fete. We’ll start by peering ahead, imagining the moment in the 2025 season – maybe sometime in mid to late May – when the six-time All-Star nabs his seventh stolen base of the year. With that theft, Ramírez will have reached the 250-homer, 250-steal plateau, thrusting the Cleveland franchise into the collection referenced above and placing himself in company with (ready for it?) these others: Craig Biggio, Robin Yount, Ryne Sandberg, Derek Jeter, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds. Not only are the greats in this club all Hall of Famers (or Hall of Fame worthy, in the case of Bonds), they are deeply linked with their franchises, near-synonyms for a reference to a Cub or Yankee or Brewer or Giant or Astro. Now nearing his 13th season – all with Cleveland – Ramírez has laid the groundwork for such a dual status.
Currently, the third baseman ranks within the top-10 in franchise history for just about all the big-time counting stats. Further, his 2025 season projection on Baseball Reference would furnish him with the following career numbers and ranks at the end of the upcoming campaign:
| Career Tallies | Cleveland Franchise Ranks |
| 983 Runs | Third, behind Earl Averill and Tris Speaker |
| 1,649 Hits | Seventh, with Lou Boudreau in sixth |
| 397 Doubles | Third, behind Speaker and Nap Lajoie |
| 282 HR | Second, 55 behind Jim Thome |
| 955 RBI | Second, 129 behind Averill |
| 270 SB | Third, behind Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel |
| 2,978 TB | Second, 222 behind Averill |
| 722 XBH | Second, two behind Averill |
Additionally, unless something really catastrophic happens for the club and their best performer, Ramírez will conclude the 2025 season having started in more victories than any other player in the franchise’s history (he’s currently 29 behind the leader, Lajoie). The placements and adjacencies that are realistically within his grasp are extraordinary. It’s also just one panel in a series of depictions that give structure and depth to the Guardians’ star – in how he can be inserted into the historical discussions.
Looking at all third basemen (two-thirds of their games at third) through their age-31 seasons, Ramírez makes the top-10 for highest bWAR, arriving at the tape with the exact same figure as Adrian Beltré and just a tick behind Scott Rolen. Of those two Hall of Famers, Rolen provides an arrestingly strong comp (less so with Beltré, who by that point, had played in 384 more contests than our man of the hour). It’s uncanny, really, how close the two are – we’ll start with the counting numbers …
| Player | Hits | Runs | 2B | HR | XBH | TB | RBI | oWAR | dWAR | bWAR |
| Rolen | 1,454 | 899 | 356 | 253 | 639 | 2,629 | 954 | 42.1 | 13.8 | 53.3 |
| Ramírez | 1,500 | 898 | 364 | 255 | 659 | 2,709 | 864 | 48.8 | 6.4 | 52.4 |
… And now focus on some rate stats:
| Player | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ |
| Rolen | .285 | .375 | .515 | .890 | 129 |
| Ramírez | .279 | .352 | .504 | .856 | 130 |
Obviously, there are some differences – Rolen was elevated by seven Gold Gloves at this point in his career, a crucial part of his narrative and historical standing and value at the position. Ramírez has no such accumulation to adorn his mantle, but he does have 243 steals (to Rolen’s 99 through his age-31 campaign), a compelling aspect of his overall profile and when paired with all of his home runs, a stage-setter for additionally interesting linkage.
For all players through their age-31 campaigns, Ramírez is one of nine to have accumulated at least 225 home runs and 225 stolen bases by that point. The aforementioned Mays and Bonds are in this collection, as is Barry’s father (and Mays’ teammate), Bobby Bonds. Andre Dawson and Sammy Sosa also reached these two benchmarks, as did Alfonso Soriano, Álex Rodríguez and another interesting comp to Ramírez, fellow switch-hitter Carlos Beltrán. Like the previous tale of the tape with Rolen as a juxtaposition, the former center fielder and current third-sacker make for interesting companions.
Also, the two are both top-10 attendees when it comes to looking at the offensive WAR for all switch-hitters through their age-31 seasons, with Ramírez occupying the seventh slot, behind Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Roberto Alomar, George Davis, Chipper Jones, Tim Raines and Roger Connor. Two more immortals – Eddie Murray and Ted Simmons – slide in before Beltrán, who is tied for 10th with Pete Rose. This snapshot is yet another intriguing depiction for how much Ramírez has accomplished and gives additional texture to his status as one of the more compelling figures and fixtures in today’s game.
As Ramírez has piled up All-Star appearances and Silver Sluggers and top-five MVP finishes to commemorate all of the statistical tallies, this is how he’s taken shape: a face of a franchise, a hot corner star, a slasher from both sides of the plate, a dasher from base to base. The profile he’s constructed has in turn created all sorts of interesting associations from the past: not a static group of names, but a fascinating assortment of careers and legacies. This is how I think of Ramírez, anyway – as a beguiling array of characteristics and their manifestations. And once the explorations with him begin, it’s fun to continue. I’ll offer just one more.
Ramírez enters the 2025 season owning a career .504 slugging percentage while having whiffed just 11.96% of the time he’s stepped to the plate. In finding precedents over the past 40 seasons for this type of performance, a whole new (well, almost) fraternity is introduced.
1985-2024: Through Age-31 Season, .500+ SLG% & K% Below 13.0 (min. 5,000 PA)
1986-1996: Barry Bonds
1988-2000: Gary Sheffield
1990-1999: Frank Thomas
1993-2003: Chipper Jones
1996-2006: Vladimir Guerrero
1997-2005: Todd Helton
2001-2011: Albert Pujols
2013-2024: José Ramírez
(Mookie Betts, who, like Ramírez is entering his age-32 season, doesn’t miss the cut by much. His K% stands at 13.65 and he owns a .524 slugging mark).
There’s really no one quite like Ramírez in the game today – when I watch or examine his numbers in a season’s (or career’s) worth of box scores, I marvel at what he’s done and where it all might lead. I ponder how much longer he’ll maintain his uncommon design, I dream it’ll all unfold as a Cleveland representative. Just this past season, he fell one longball shy of becoming the only third baseman ever to produce a 40-homer, 40-steal season (there have been four outfielders, a shortstop and a DH to have done it). At the end of this upcoming year, he may have done enough to approach 300 round-trippers and 300 thefts for a career (no one whose main position is third has ever done this, depending on how you regard Álex Rodríguez). With a typical year, he’ll climb the ranks for both third basemen and switch-hitters to add a few more data points for candidacy as an all-timer. Presumably, all of this will unfold as he climbs up the Cleveland franchise leaderboards to advance closer to a different set of baseball gods. What a bundle of fun and intriguing possibilities, what a cool ballplayer.
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.